


Nugs as Big as Horses and Other Tall Tales

by Cartadwarfwithaheartofgold (manka)



Series: How to Win a Losing Hand: One-Shots from the Love Story of Varric Tethras and Maria Cadash (Canon Dragon Age Setting) [18]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Kid Fic, Papa Varric Tethras, Reading Aloud, Reunions, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, good dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26331913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manka/pseuds/Cartadwarfwithaheartofgold
Summary: Varric Tethras loves his precocious daughter, who believes absolutely none of his bullshit. Even when he IS telling the truth about the crazy shit her mother got up to.
Relationships: Female Cadash/Varric Tethras, Female Inquisitor/Varric Tethras, Maria Cadash/Varric Tethras - Relationship
Series: How to Win a Losing Hand: One-Shots from the Love Story of Varric Tethras and Maria Cadash (Canon Dragon Age Setting) [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896694
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13





	Nugs as Big as Horses and Other Tall Tales

Tiny, pudgy fingers shoved another shortbread cookie past her lips. She’d ruin her dinner if she kept it up, but Varric couldn’t quite find it in his heart to take them away. Not when their Marguerite was so very enthralled with him at that moment, at any rate. 

“What’s that?” She asked, mouthful of sweet only rendering her slightly incoherent. She slammed her free hand over the illustration in the book, a shiny gray creature of sleek, mottled skin with a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth and a hooked nose.

“Ah, that’s a bogfisher, Sunshine.” Varric surreptitiously brushed the crumbs off the parchment. Maggie frowned in studious concentration, looking as serious as she could for the wise old age of four. 

“It’s too scary.” She decreed solemnly. 

“The only scary thing about them is the smell.” Varric promised. “You’re not gonna believe this, but your mommy dragged me into a swamp to find one as big as a ship. It smelled so terrible, your Uncle Dorian fainted dead away.” 

Maggie giggled and curled up to rest her head against his chest, settling back and tapping the next picture with smug satisfaction. “That’s a bronto.” 

“The dwarves in Orzammar ride them.” Varric supplied. The skepticism in his daughter’s gray eyes when she swung them up to study him nearly made him laugh. “Right hand to the Maker.” 

“No they don’t.” She argued, wrinkling her button nose, and honestly Varric loved her so much, he was almost ready to agree. Children, he thought with no small degree of amusement, were dangerous that way. Particularly this one, with her mother’s soft eyes, her endless compassion for every abandoned baby kitten and homeless chick, her hair copper in the flickering light from the fireplace. 

“What do they ride, then?” He asked instead with an arched brow. 

“Nugs.” Maggie answered with a sly, wicked grin of her own. “Nugs as big as horses.” 

He let out a surprised, delighted chuckle. “Saw some of those too, back in the day. Mommy kept them in her stable.” 

She thought he was going along with her story, and he was quite content to let her think so. Maggie giggled, reaching for the next page and a cookie at the same time, before a light knock interrupted them.

Instantly, his daughter’s face became thunderous and her eyes reproachful. After all, Kirkwall kept Varric busy most of every day. He carved out these precious hours for Maggie each evening and guarded them jealousy along with any spare moment he could find. 

Still, Varric couldn’t help but struggle to hide his amusement as her mother’s temper played across her childish features. Neither of them particularly liked to have their time infringed upon. “Should I tell them to go away or do you want to give it a try?” He asked instead. 

Maggie tossed her gentle curls proudly and glared with all the gravitas she could muster at the office door. “The Viscount is in a meeeeeeting!” 

“An important one.” He prompted, unable to contain a soft chuckle. 

“An im-por-tant one!” Maggie repeated emphatically. 

The answering laugh from outside the door drifted lazily through the stone like fresh campfire smoke. It made every line in Maggie’s body go tense and breathless, an arrow string right before it loosed. 

The door cracked open just enough to reveal a sliver of a form, crimson hair and mischevious eyes. “Perhaps an exception may be made for the Viscountess?”

Maggie’s shout of joy echoed in the office and she flew from his lap, knocking the book to the stone floor. The plate of cookies nearly went the same way, but Varric’s reflexes were still quick enough to prevent a complete mess. 

Maria bumped the door the rest of the way with her hip, smoothly bending to catch most of Maggie’s enthusiastic embrace. She had her own crossbow, the smaller, one-handed model of Bianca still slung on her back. Her leathers still bore traces of both dust and dirt and the smell of the sea drifted in around her while she scooped up their daughter in a sturdy, one-armed grip. 

Just like that, the weight he carried in his chest while she was gone evaporated, dew vanishing in the scorching sunlight. He watched, almost lightheaded, as she spun both her and Maggie in a tight circle. Their daughter’s giggles joined Maria’s own laughter as they pushed their foreheads together. 

“Welcome home, Princess.” Varric stood, abandoning the book as easily as Maggie did and swaggering carelessly to the side of his unmanageable girls. Maria lifted her eyes from the matching set in Maggie’s face to catch him with a small, satisfied grin. 

“Did you miss me?” She asked, just like she always did, eyebrow lifting and a satisfied flush in her cheeks. 

“Only a bit.” Varric lied smoothly, the same way _he_ always did. 

But he could never fight the urge to wrap his arms around her waist, to pull both of them to his chest and send a silent thank you for her safe return. Maggie squirmed but he ignored her resolutely as he pressed a not-quite chaste kiss on Maria’s upturned lips. He pulled back just enough to count the freckles dashed across the bridge of her nose. 

Because he could, because she’d come back in one piece one more time, thank Andraste or the Ancestors or whoever was listening, he dropped one more kiss on the tip of it. 

“Mommy.” Maggie demanded, those pudgy fingers gripping Maria’s chin insistently. Maria turned her attention back down to their imperious child. 

“Yes love?”

“I want a nug as big as a horse.” Maggie widened her eyes imploringly. “Please?” 

“For Andraste’s sake how did you hear about…” Maria began, incredulous for only a moment before she scoffed and turned her exasperated gaze to him. 

“Varric…” She sighed reproachfully. 

“Hey,” He defended, pressing his smile into her hair so she couldn’t see that his reckless joy at her arrival continued in spite of her tone. “She came up with that one all on her own.”

**Author's Note:**

> FINE DWARVEN CHEST HAIR DIRECT FROM KIRKWALL AT [@cartadwarfwithaheartofgold](http://cartadwarfwithaheartofgold.tumblr.com)


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